Merck, world pharma leader, signed a 12-year Virtual Power Purchase Agreement with Enel Green Power for the construction of a wind and storage project in Texas; the company announced this Tuesday.
Firstly, the project is called Azure Sky wind and storage; it will have a 350 megawatts capacity, with a battery pack of further 137 MW; from which Merck will offtake 68 MW, the equivalent of 14 wind turbines that stand nearly 183 meters tall.
Secondly, the project will be operational by the first half of 2022. The agreement with Merck is already among the largest aggregation deals in the world. It will deliver, apart from the 68 MW, also, Energy Certificates to match 65% of Merck’s U.S. electricity consumption.
Thirdly, Azure Sky wind and storage will be located west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in Throckmorton County, Texas.
Furthermore, the Sustainability Roundtable, Inc organized the aggregation, as it brings companies together to approach the renewable energy market. Therefore, providing access to VPPA’s which were previously only accessible to companies with outsized energy needs.
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Merck, to be climate neutral by 2040
Moreover, Merck became an anchor buyer within the Net Zero Consortium for Buyers, which let it to access the agreement and walk straight forward to its transition goals.
In addition, Chris Ross, interim sector head, Life Science, and U.S. country speaker at Merck, said. “Now more than ever, it is critical for companies to evaluate their operations and take action toward becoming more environmentally sustainable.”
He also remarked. “This project also supports our commitment to be climate neutral by 2040; therefore, complementing our energy and emissions reduction initiatives. Our involvement in the Azure Sky wind and storage project firmly moves us closer toward achieving this ambitious goal; outlined in our sustainability strategy.”
On the other hand, Georgios Papadimitriou, head of Enel Green Power in the United States and Canada, said. “Merck’s commitment as an anchor buyer of the aggregation deal is contributing toward an extraordinary shift in the renewable energy purchasing market; giving businesses with all sizes of energy demand the opportunity to procure renewable energy; in a cost-effective way.”
